News & Notes

Some might say that the Tea Party’s platform contains some contradictions. It seems that they’re|like most people, really|willing to ignore those spending programs from which they benefit directly. The subsidization of suburbia is one of these beneficial spending programs, too. But the nature of this subsidy is so diffuse that it’s hard to point at directly|cheap petroleum, tax incentives for homeowners, DOT money that goes straight to highway funds, etc|so that it is now taken for granted, a mere part of the “American way of life” that only really existed for maybe two and a half decades following World War II.

When a Los Angeles bus rider asked presidential candidate George W. Bush about transit improvements in 2000, Bush responded, “My hope is that you will be able to find good enough work so you’ll be able to afford a car.” Bush was undoubtedly sincere. Like many Americans|probably most|he saw a bus (like a bicycle) as a nothing more than a pathetic substitute for a car.

In a bid to cut costs and improve transit service for New Yorkers with disabilities, the MTA and the Taxi and Limousine Commission will pilot a program to have yellow cabs provide Access-A-Ride service. The program could benefit everyone who rides subways and buses too | if it proves effective at curbing the cost of Access-A-Ride, the federally-mandated service which has been eating up an increasingly large portion of the MTA’s budget and putting strain on other aspects of the transit system.

5 months agoby gcpvdDuring the construction on the Financial District (aka East Downcity) part of Westminster, the street has been a de facto pedestrian street (the street was technically open to auto traffic when I took this picture). Maybe we're on to something? Maybe just a lunchtime shutdown?

6 months agoby gcpvdI understand the festival was postponed because of the rain, but having Atwells opened to traffic while it is set up for a festival is stupendously idiotic and dangerous.